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This is a totally new, humorous and deadly serious Internet marketing concept: BegForPost :: Why pay per post when you can beg? It’s a marketplace for those who want blog exposure and those interested in giving blog exposure. It is being reported in places like TechCrunch as an alternative to “the ethically questionable PayPerPost service that allows advertisers to pay bloggers to write about their products”. (That’s a debate for another day.)

One of the toughest problems when promoting one’s website to bloggers is finding the right ones…not just those who might be interested because they are in your niche, but those who actually are interested because they want to receive your PR material. Those adventuresome website marketers who take on that challenge waste a lot of time sending emails and filling in comments forms to bloggers who have no interest, who in turn waste a lot of time reading and deleting unwanted messages.

BegForPost is a start, but it needs something more. It needs a way for bloggers to search for webmasters who are interested in getting exposure on a topic (for guest blogs, joint ventures, free samples, etc.) It needs a way for webmasters to search for bloggers in their niche who are interested in listening.

I just took BegForPost for a spin. I had no way to know which blog to target, so I looked at whom others were targeting, picked one, and begged for a post on behalf of a client. My begging is at this point in the hands of a moderator. But how do I know if the target blogger wants to hear from my client.

This is a cool idea, but it needs a little more sophistication before it is likely to be genuinely useful. However, I will report back if my test drive ends up bearing fruit. If not, I might try again with another client.

This SEO scam is so new that it hasn’t even begun yet, at least not to my knowledge. I don’t want to give SEO scammers ideas, but I am 100% certain that this is coming and that there will be many, many, many (did I mention “many”?) unsuspecting webmasters who will fall for it, so let’s for once get the warnings about the scam out there before it begins.

Google’s new personalized search has already begun, and within months it will start to skew Google’s rankings in two ways.

First, data Google gathers about how people are searching will certainly start to be factored into the general algorithm. This means that on-page relevancy and inbound links will have to share the stage with such factors as click-through rates, click-back rates (back to Google from the site), length of visit, number of pages viewed, repeat visits, etc. In other words, Google will be better able to measure “good” content from trash.

A whole industry will sprout up to help webmasters take advantage of this, much of it black hat (like click fraud, perhaps?), some white hat, mostly to create more “sticky” content, improve click-through rates and encourage people to “vote” in some way for the site. On the white hat side, TheBookmarketer can help you move ahead right away, as I reported in this post on how to use social bookmarking to a website’s advantage.

Second, the data it collects from each individual will be used to present more personalized results to that individual. Exactly how this will work remains to be seen, as there are many ways that Google has hinted it can factor the information into a person’s individual results. But one thing is for certain…as soon as SEO scammers get a sense of some of the factors that affect personalized results, the scamming will begin. Here is exactly what the scammers will do:

1. The scammer will tell the website owner to sign up for a Google account.

2. The scammer will tell the webmaster to “visit your website every day” or “visit at least ten pages of your site in succession every day” or “Google bookmark your website” or “do the following ten searches and click on your site from the rankings every day”. The precise instructions will depend on the factors that most influence personal search.

3. The scammer will promise that the website owner will see his site move up in the rankings. And he will see it move up in the rankings. But only on his computer using his personalized search. Even if his website shows up as #1 for “broken glass”, none of the broken-glass-buying market might even see his site in their results.

This scam won’t fool everybody. It is most likely to work on the little guy, who operates from one computer and would not think to compare results. It might not work forever, but what scammer will stick around to argue the finer points once he’s sucked the money out of an unsuspecting website owner’s pockets?

Google will surely take steps to reduce this in order to protect the integrity of its results (remember the searcher is whom Google must please), but like every game of locks and lock-pickers, there will be plenty of scams flying under Google’s radar or keeping one step ahead.

The best protection a webmaster has against this sort of scam is to include mention of it in passing in every article posted on the Internet about personal search. Hopefully not too many webmasters will miss it before hiring an SEO scammer. And that’s why today I am outing the scammers before they even start!

I just stumbled upon Digg-Like Sites, a great little directory of social bookmarking websites in various languages. I plan to do a Spanish and French version of my own social bookmarking script, TheBookmarketer, so this will be very helpful. If you plan to do any multilingual online marketing, these can come in handy!

In SEO for Reputation Management: Part I, we made the strategic decisions of what Amanda wanted people toi see when they Search Google or Yahoo for her name. In Part II, we took inventory of what is already on the Information Highway that she can use to that end.

Now it’s time to put together the plan. Time has slipped through my fingers, and Amanda (not her real name, remember?) has already begun implementing some of the plan. At the end of this post, I’ll share with you her interim results.

I won’t go through all the details, but some of the major recommendations were…

1. Her blog was being used very, very sporadically. More frequent posts, occasionally speaking in the third person, would help (I probably should mention that this is David Leonhardt’s blog in every post and put my name in the Blog Title above as Amanda does, but I never put together a reputation management plan for myself!). In fact, I recommended a post about herself, something I should do one of these days, too. This should secure a second listing in Google’s top 10 for her blog.

2. She owns the domain of her name, but it points to her blog. I recommended developing her domain to include certain content that would help her get double listings Google’s top 10 for her name.

3. I suggested ways to make her two blogger profiles work to her advantage.

4. I suggested ways to boost the rankings also of a few of the various places where she has articles right now (or then) on the Internet.

5. I suggested a few places where she could build a good reputation directly, that could also rank highly in the search engines or support the rankings of her other pages. For instance, I pointed out my pages at MySpace, Zaadz, Squidoo, MyBlogLog and TagWorld. I haven’t done near enough with any of these, mind you, but I will. Honest.

6. I also recommended a multi-faceted linking campaign, geared to the various types of pages Amanda was trying to boost in the rankings.

SEO Reputation Management Plan Progress report.

On Google’s top 10 right now…

1. Amanda’s Blogger profile. She has another Blogger profile, but it has not been worked on yet and it is not ranking.

2. Her blog. She has been doing more posts, but not yet what is needed for a second page to rank. I have offered some additional details.

3. One of the pages I mentioned in item #4 above.

4. and 5. A new appearance by another offensive blogger, posted two years ago. How these two postings got up in the rankings is anybody’s guess, but it is likely the result of something that happened sitewide (as opposed to something related to these two specific posts). As the linking campaign kicks in, the two offensive posts should sink.

6. Amanda’s MySpace profile. More can be done to make this a double listing. Possibly.

7. Amanda’s under construction and 99% unoptimized site on her own-name domain. When the site is finished, there should be two pages from this domain in the top 10.

8. and 9. Two more of the pages I mentioned in item #4 above.

10. Amanda’s MySpace page. More can be done to make this a double listing. Definitely. I’ve made some additional suggestions.

So there you have it. Some promising interim results. One can do much to manage one’s reputation using sound, responsible SEO techniques.

Most webmasters and website owners do not yet understand social bookmarking or how they can use it to increase their leads, their sales, their subscribers and even their repeat visitors. This is a primer that every webmaster and blogger should read.

Everyone knows that a bookmark is a piece of paper that marks a page so you can find it easily again. Most people know that a computer bookmark is a link on your computer that marks a web page so you can find it easily again.

A social bookmark is link that marks a web page so you can find it easily again, but also so you can share it with others, usually by posting it to one of several dozen social-bookmarking websites. For instance, I have accounts at del.icio.us, Simpy, Searchles and several others.

If I was to post a bookmark to your web page at one of these sites, something magical would happen.

First, other members of the bookmarking site could view the link. Then they could follow the link. Then they could subscribe, view more, buy or whatever can be done at that page. Then they could also bookmark the link. Since many bookmarking people participate in several bookmarking sites. They might bookmark your page several times. And they might even blog the link.

The next magic happens when all this is amplified by the magic of search engines who see these very naturally-created (real votes, not phony link exchanges!) building up over time across numerous domains and in varying contexts. The search engines are not stupid, and they are getting smarter every day at recognizing the difference between real and phony links.

The website which can attract social bookmarks has a clear advantage above those that don’t.

STOP THE PRESSES

Just last week, Google updated its algorithm, and webmasters should take note. It’s new “personal search” algorithm includes social bookmarking even more specifically than in the ways I mentioned above. Google can easily see which web pages have been bookmarked at — guess where? — Google Bookmarks!

So you as a website owner or blogger have a very special interest in finding ways to encourage people to social bookmark your pages at Google Bookmarks and at public bookmarking websites.

HOW TO HARNESS SOCIAL BOOKMARKING OF YOUR WEBSITE

Bloggers have been doing this manually for some time, posting little icons for del.icio.us and Digg and ma.gnolia and others at the end of each post. The idea is that users of each social bookmarking service will be prompted to bookmark the post, assuming the post has value.

But doing this manually leaves a lot to be desired, consuming time and effort to set it up and stay current, as well as limitations.

So a few clever people came out with scripts to help automate the process (not the bookmarking itself, just the bookmarking links on the website). The latest entry into this market is the free TheBookmarketer, which is better than the other “similar” scripts in five ways, as I outlined near the bottom of my previous blog post.

When you place a social bookmarking script on your website or blog, make sure to use it yourself. Ask friends and family to, as well. Ask your newsletter subscribers and satisfied customers to social bookmark your pages, too.

Remember, placing the simple snippet of code on your website might be an easy set-it-and-forget-it marketing tool, but it is not some automated “0 to 60 in 5.2″ magic wand. It is just one tool in your arsenal, and it works best when you have something worthwhile for your visitors to bookmark. It does not make your website great, but it does prompt your visitors to let other surfers, shoppers and the search engines know just how great your website is.

As ever day passes, social bookmarking becomes a more important factor in how people find the websites of interest to them. Social bookmarking is both replacing and enhancing typical search engine activity, and no webmaster can afford to lose out on the incredible amount of traffic that social bookmarking sends, both directly and through the search engines.

This is the official launch of TheBookmarketer. It is tempting to call this a revolution in website marketing, to use the typical hype of online marketing gurus…but it’s not. It’s not about hype, it is about substance. It’s not a revolution, it is a big step forward in the Web 2.0 revolution that is already under way. And it is an extraordinarily handy and easy tool to give website owners and bloggers a competitive edge. TheBookmarketer is a social bookmarking tool. In my next post, I will give a complete rundown of social marketing, why it is important to webmasters and bloggers and how you can harness its awesome power. In this post, I will simply explain what TheBookmarketer is, what it is not, who should use it, how it is better than several “similar” tools, and why I have gone to the effort and expense to make it so good and give it to you for free.

WHAT THEBOOKMARKETER IS…

TheBookmarketer helps your visitors promote your site in many ways.

TheBookmarketer is a set-it-and-forget tool, a free snippet of code you have to add to your SSI or include file only once. Ever.

TheBookmarketer draws other interested social bookmark users to your site (targeted traffic).

WHAT THEBOOKMARKETER IS NOT…

TheBookmarketer is not an “automated traffic machine”. Those don’t generally give you quality traffic.

TheBookmarketer is not a 0 to 60 in 5.2 link-builder. It builds links at a speed that reflects a) the number of visitors to a page, and b) the value they get out of the content of the page.

TheBookmarketer is not a guarantee of success on its own; you need quality content that others will feel is worth bookmarking for later use or for sharing with friends or colleagues.

WHO SHOULD USE THEBOOKMARKETER…

TheBookmarketer can help any website get wider exposure and higher search engine rankings. However, certain types of sites stand the most to gain:

Content-rich portals and information sites, including directories and article directories.

Ezines with online archives.

Blogs and online forums with always new and useful information.

Ecommerce stores with descriptions of products that people might want to save for later use of share with others.

Photo- or video-sharing websites.

News websites, general or niche

Any website with either new or useful information

HOW THEBOOKMARKETER IS BETTER THAN “SIMILAR” TOOLS…

Technically, you do not need a tool to prompt your visitors to social bookmark your pages. You could add code for each social bookmarking site by hand. The disadvantage to that is that it is a lot of work…a lot of work getting started and a lot of work keeping up-to-date when in a fast-changing field. And you won’t be able to cover as many social bookmarking websites. There are a handful of social bookmarking tools for webmasters around, but we made TheBookmarketer better in 5 ways:

At this point, only TheBookmarketer has the Google Bookmarks submit link.

The Bookmarkerter has the largest list of social bookmarking sites, offering the best reach of potential visitors and the best breadth of incoming links (and we plan to add to the list).

TheBookmarketer makes the most popular sites easy to access by floating them to the top.

I am committed to keeping TheBookmarketer very current so you don’t have to think about it.

WHY I INVESTED THE EFFORT AND MONEY TO DEVELOP THEBOOKMARKETER JUST TO GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE…

Marketing. It’s that simple. We are a website marketing company and what better way to introduce ourselves to you and to those people who will be bookmarking your pages than by demonstrating our ability to help you market your website. That is the same reason why we are committed to keeping it current for you and ensuring that it remains the very best tool possible. See it in action at the bottom of this post…